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Napoleon Bonaparte was a genius. Adolf Hitler had an above-average IQ. Joe Biden is a half-wit. All three are fools who believed they could destroy Russia. The West’s failed Ukraine project has forced us to confront a bewildering array of what look like instances of stupidity, verging even on psychosis. Competent analysts like John Mearsheimer and Jacques Baud confirmed the obvious: total defeat for Ukraine has been inevitable from the get-go, yet the politicians and media kept telling us Ukraine was sure to win, and even if Ukraine lost, at least Putin could easily be removed from office. To me,...

‘In terms of honesty, the only thing I can say is, every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don't go anywhere,' says US president. US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he canceled an upcoming summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin because "it didn’t feel right" to him. "We canceled the meeting with President Putin, it didn't feel right to me," Trump told reporters at the White House alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. "It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I canceled it,...

The White House has hit President Putin with a “substantial” package of sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies in a sign of President Trump’s growing impatience over the war in Ukraine. Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said last night: “President Putin has not come to the table in an honest and forthright manner, as we’d hoped.” Announcing a raft of new penalties, Bessent added: “Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine. Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support...

United States President Donald Trump denounced in a Truth Social post on Wednesday a report by the Wall Street Journal of the US allowing Ukraine to strike "deep into Russia" with Western-made long-range weapons as "fake news." "The US has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!" he clarified. In the report, WSJ stated that Washington gave the green light to Kiev to attack Russia with British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles before Trump met with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last week.

Russia has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leading to frequent blackoutsThe Ukrainian city of Chernihiv is in total blackout following what the authorities describe as a "massive" assault by Russian missiles and drones, with hundreds of thousands of people affected.Across the wider Chernihiv region, four people are reported to have been killed as residential neighbourhoods were struck in the town of Novhorod-Siverskyi.Ten others were injured, including a 10-year-old girl.The country's most northerly region is the latest to be hit in an intensifying series of attacks on civilian infrastructure as Russia targets energy supplies, the rail network, homes and...

A planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was put on hold on Tuesday, as Moscow's rejection of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine cast a cloud over attempts at negotiations. A senior White House official told Reuters "there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future" after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a "productive call" but opted against an in-person meeting. Trump had announced last week that he and Putin would meet soon in Hungary to try to bring an end...

I am continuing to prepare for President Donald Trump’s trip to Budapest, where he will meet with President Putin. In order to negotiate an end to the war with Ukraine, it is necessary to know for what Putin sent his soldiers there. To clarify, I am not asking “why,” but “what for.” Since the beginning of Putin’s attack on Ukraine, political scientists, psychologists, and other experts have attempted to explain the attack based on Putin’s psyche: his desire to prove to world leaders that he is the most powerful, his dream of being remembered as the “gatherer of Russian lands,”...

Russia reiterated its previous terms for reaching a peace deal with Ukraine in a private communique sent to the U.S. over the weekend known as a "non paper," two U.S. officials said. The communique reiterated Russia's demand that it take control of all of Ukraine's Donbas region, one of the officials said, a stance that effectively rejects U.S. President Donald Trump's current position that the frontlines should be frozen at their prevailing locations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with several US defense contractors this week, including Raytheon, GE, and Lockheed Martin. A few days later, major defense companies raised their full-year profit estimates significantly. Spokespeople say that tariffs have no impact on demand for the defense industry. Naturally, Ukraine is seeking duty-free defense imports on defense products paid for by other countries. Lockheed raised its profit forecast from $22.15–$22.35 per share, up from $21.70–$22.00. The revenue forecast increased to $74.25–$74.75 billion from the previous range of $73.75–$74.75 billion. CEO Jim Taiclet noted there is “unprecedented demand” for Lockheed’s F-35 fighters, CH-53K helicopters, and...

"Vladimir Putin has ordered massive, near daily missile and drone attacks which are devastating Ukraine's capacity to fight on. Brian Berletic of The New Atlas and Alexander Mercouris of The Duran join the show to break down the military and diplomatic shockwaves being sent through the West as Ukraine crumbles, as well as a new war being declared by Donald Trump that is leaving the world in shock." Not sure what the claim of a new war is about....

British Storm Shadow missiles have been used by Volodymyr Zelensky to strike an important chemical plant that produces gunpowder in southern Russia. The use of missiles supplied by Britain in Russia's Bryansk region will likely spark condemnation from Vladimir Putin's government. 'A massive combined missile and air strike was carried out, including the use of air-launched Storm Shadow missiles, which successfully penetrated the Russian air defense system,' Ukraine's General Staff said in a statement on X on Tuesday. 'This enterprise produces gunpowder, explosives, and components for rocket fuel, in particular for ammunition and missiles that the enemy uses to shell...

President Trump has denied telling President Volodymyr Zelensky he should surrender Ukraine’s entire Donbas region to Russia to end the war — but said Kyiv should give up the land already taken by Russia. Trump insisted that the two leaders “never discussed” giving up the entire region during their closed-door meeting last week, after reports claimed his White House meeting with Zelensky on Friday had descended into an explosive “shouting match.” “We never discussed that,” Trump told reporters on Sunday when pressed on whether pushed for Ukraine to accept President Vladimir Putin’s terms for a cease-fire. “We think that what...

Moscow appears to have rejected President Trump’s latest call to freeze the current state of the front lines in Ukraine, reiterating that “Russia’s stance doesn’t change.” Addressing Trump’s proposal over the weekend that the war in Ukraine end immediately and that each side keep the land they currently hold, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov scoffed at the prospect of allowing Kyiv to keep parts of the Donbas region. “This topic was repeatedly raised in various forms during contacts between Russia and the US. The Russian side answered every time, this answer is well known: the consistency of Russia’s position doesn’t change,”...

EU energy ministers on Monday backed a proposal to phase out Russian oil and gas imports to the bloc by January 2028, the Council of the European Union said. The ministers approved the plans, which would phase out new Russian gas import contracts from January 2026, existing short-term contracts from June 2026, and long-term contracts in January 2028, at a meeting in Luxembourg. The law is not yet final. EU countries must negotiate the final rules with the European Parliament, which is still debating its position. The EU wants to phase out Russian energy imports to deprive the Kremlin of...

Ukrainian President Zelenskiy’s latest White House visit to secure Tomahawk missiles reportedly devolved into a contentious “shouting match” with President Trump. According to anonymous sources, Trump, fresh off a phone call with Vladimir Putin, made a stunning reversal. He allegedly pressured Zelenskiy to surrender the entire Donbas region, warning that Putin would “destroy” Ukraine otherwise. Trump was said to have cursed, tossed aside battlefield maps, and repeated Russian talking points verbatim, including calling the conflict a “special military operation.”

Ukraine may import gas worth around $2 billion from Europe, the United States, and Azerbaijan this winter, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, after its gas infrastructure was severely damaged by Russian attacks. He did not specify how much gas Ukraine planned to purchase. Kyiv had expected to import 4.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas before a series of Russian strikes hit Ukraine's gas sector earlier this autumn. Due to the damage, energy minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said imports would need to be increased by 30%, while analysts estimated total gas import requirements at no less than 6.3 bcm. "We expect that...

In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that after President Trump’s breakthrough deal in the Middle East, he should take a similar approach with Russian President Vladimir Putin — but with even greater pressure to end the war in Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to give up swaths of territory to Russia during a tense meeting on Friday that left the Ukrainian delegation disappointed, according to two people briefed on the discussion. Trump also declined to provide Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine's use, and mused about giving security guarantees to both Kyiv and Moscow, comments that the Ukrainian delegation found confusing, added the two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss a private conversation. After his meeting with Zelenskiy, Trump publicly called for a ceasefire on the current frontlines, a position that the Ukrainian president then embraced...

Another meeting between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly ended with a fiery shouting match—this time behind closed doors.Trump was pressuring his Ukrainian counterpart to accept Russia’s terms for a ceasefire during an explosive White House meeting on Friday, according to the Financial Times, reportedly telling Zelensky that Russia would “destroy” Ukraine if he didn’t agree.Multiple sources told the outlet that the meeting—where Zelensky was hoping, but ultimately failed, to secure long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles—quickly descended into a “shouting match” with “cursing all the time.”

The American Conservative sits down with Balázs Orbán, political director to the Hungarian Prime Minister, to discuss why the logic of war should be replaced in the forthcoming Budapest summit by the idea of political settlement. (Wikimedia Commons) President Donald Trump recently demonstrated willingness for a summit with Russia, in Budapest, to seek an end to the conflict in Ukraine. Balázs Orbán, political director to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (no relation), sat down with The American Conservative to discuss what are the possibilities of peace in Ukraine, and who in the EU might try to hinder that. Hungary...